


We Keep The Watch

by TrishaCollins



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 07:12:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrishaCollins/pseuds/TrishaCollins
Summary: Just because his father isn't allowed on shore doesn't mean their paths never cross.





	We Keep The Watch

There were bodies and cargo bobbing in the water, mother was standing by the mast, staring at the sunset with the fierce sort of longing he knew meant father might come.

He was watching the horizon, listening to the men as they trimmed sail and got the anchor down.

A few men were watching the water, each looking a bit nervous.

They must not have seen the Dutchman before. Or his father.

The men didn't like to talk about his father, or about the sea tales he had begged from them on shore.

Bad luck, they said, to speak of the damned. Worse luck to speak of the ferryman who shepherded souls between this world and the next. He wasn't sure why, but seamen had their little oddities, his mother had told him. It was best not to challenge them.

"IS he coming, mother?" He asked from his spot on the stern.

"Soon." She said quietly. "Soon." Her eyes never left the horizon.

His mother was the most beautiful woman in the world, he knew it, her crew knew it, he was fairly certain the entire world knew it to be true. She agreed, even. Except, she said, for the Lady Jane, the ship they stood upon. The Lady Jane was the fastest, best ship in the entire world.

His mother had built her so, and his mother never lied to him, so he trusted her word.

Mother and the Lady Jane looked only to father, though, and no other man could match his father. That he also knew to be true, as sure as the deck beneath his feet.

"When?" He asked, chewing his lip, eager to see his father again. It had been months and months since he had seen him. Grandfather had come twice, but father had been busy untangling some disaster in a land very far away, and had not sailed anywhere close to their shores.

"Soon." Mother repeated, eyes never moving from their watch.

He stood on tip toe, peering into the water, then glancing back at the horizon where mother watched.

He looked down again, and mother crowed with victory. "Ship on the port-side!"

The call was echoed a moment later in the rigging, he squinted hard against t he dregs of the sunset to see the little black dot that was rapidly sailing closer.

Father brought the Dutchman within shouting distance. "Good evening, Captain."

"Good evening to you, Mister Turner." Mother shouted back, smiling so widely that it made her eyes sparkle. He thought she looked the most beautiful like this, in men's clothes looking at his father, standing on the deck of her ship

"Evening Captain!" He piped up from beside her, waving happily to his father.

Father's eyes crinkled in the special way that was only his. "I've work to do, Captain Turner, young Henry, but when I am done, shall I join you for supper?"

"Yes!!" He gasped out, then flushed and covered his face.

Mother only laughed though, so they weren't so far into the game that he couldn't break for just a moment.

"We would welcome you, Mister Turner. You have been too long away from these waters for comfort!" Mother called.

Father chuckled, moving down the ship as his own crew weighed anchor and started the task of drawing the spirits of the dead from the water.

He watched until his eyes started to blur looking at them, it was a weird thing to see. Father had laughed when he had told him it gave him a headache to see, but had solemnly told him that he did not need to watch. T'was not his duty.

That made father sad sometimes, sad in a way that even chattering with him about charts or stories did nothing to soften the sadness.

Father did not love his duty, but he did it without complaint. Mother complained for him, often, but she did it on shore where the sea could not hear her.

Mother seemed convinced that it would.

There were odd constants in his universe, a watch posted at sunset and dawn for no other reason than his father might be spotted, concern that the sea might take offense to this thing or that thing, and the knowledge that his father watched over the souls of the dead.

He had thought when he was younger - and not a strapping lad of seven, who was much older and wiser - that some day he would go with father on the Dutchman, like Grandfather was. But mother had said he would inherit the Lady Jane when she was ready to retire.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to do that, or that his mother would ever be ready to retire.

"Better to sail with her than against her." One of the crewman muttered under his breath.

He turned to watch the man curiously, but he only fled beneath the deck.

Most of the men had gone bellow deck before Grandfather and father came over.

Father scooped him up and swung him around, making much of his new inches and his coat before he moved to kiss mother.

He hid his face in Grandfather's coat while they kissed, and plugged up his ears so he wouldn't hear them, until laughing Grandfather gave him a gentle push towards mother's Cabin where dinner would be.

Father and mother were walking arm in arm, leaning against each other.

It made him smile, even if nobody else seemed to like seeing them together. Tonight, for just this once, his entire family was home.


End file.
